18 July 2025
Hi all, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and got to enjoy the sunshine.
I had a lovely weekend starting at the Durham Miners' Gala and meeting up with lots of friends from all over the country. On Sunday I attended Mayor's Sunday which was a lovely service at The Parish Church of Holy Trinity with St Mark, followed by a gorgeous time at Eid Fusion Festival at Ropner Park. The park looked as beautiful as always and is a huge credit to the staff that work tirelessly to make it an absolute gem in our Borough. The festival demonstrated why I am proud of Stockton. I am proud of the diversity of our Borough and how people come together to celebrate. It was very apt after the Mayor's Sunday where the sermon was about loving our neighbour. It is something we should all try to live by.
On Monday afternoon, I joined the Corporate Management Team for a briefing ahead of Cabinet later in the week. We had updates on the local plan, overview and scrutiny and progress on powering our future.
On Tuesday morning I met with Jonathan Nertney, for our regular catch up, followed by a meeting with other North East Leaders and the Local Government Association (LGA) group. It gives us an opportunity to discuss current issues that affect us all and it's a really good chance for us to support each other.
In the afternoon, I had a pre-agenda meeting of the Council's Health and Wellbeing Board. This pre-agenda meeting makes sure that I am briefed on all the agenda points before the full meeting which is scheduled for later this month and to put forward topics for future meetings.
On Wednesday I had some private meetings on the morning and then went out for lunch with my Dad. Sadly, I lost my Mam almost 18 months ago and I always try to make the time in my diary to go for lunch with him once a week. In the afternoon I met with Dr Paul Williams with Cllr Pauline Beall, the Cabinet member for Health and Adult Social Care. We discussed the NHS 10-year plan and community health care and Stockton's plans to address health inequalities.
Following this, I met with all Cabinet Members to reflect on our first three months together.
Thursday morning, I met with Cllr Clare Besford, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council Officers and Zoe Lewis CBE, Principal and Chief Executive, Aimey Adamson, Vice Principal: Students and Craig Duggan Associate Director for Additional Learning Support (ALS) all from Middlesbrough College to discuss funding and how we work together. I have regular catch ups with educational institutes due to my role as Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills at the Tees Valley Combined Authority.
I then joined a meeting with Mike Greene, Ann Workman OBE, Chair for Catalyst, and Lucy Owens, Chief Executive for Catalyst. Catalyst is the Borough's voluntary development agency, dedicated to supporting and guiding the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.
I then chaired the Cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon, which had the longest agenda that I have ever seen! Some of the updates included an update on the regeneration plans for Tees Central, schools' capital programme, Xentrall Annual Report, Air Quality Strategy and an update on the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP).
Following the Cabinet meeting I had to dash across to Middlesbrough to attend the Teesside University Graduation dinner.
Today I am preparing for a workshop that I am facilitating on Adult Skills that takes place next week at the Teesworks training centre. This is the third workshop in a series of 4 that will help us shape the future plans in Education, Employment and Skills across the Tees Valley.
This weekend I am joining a group of friends to attend Thornafest, a festival that is organised by Thornaby Town Council. I have been told that the weather doesn't look too good so I may have to go out and buy rain ponchos for us all.
Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a great weekend.
